Liverish – Fatty Liver & Syndrome X, Eye Dark Circle

LIVERISH E-NEWSLETTER

Edition 1.4 October 2005

For all things liverish!

By Dr Sandra Cabot & Simone Abaron ND

Pack up the heavy blankets, heaters and jumpers… spring is here! Wash away the winter blues and get ready for summer by giving your body a good spring clean! Our Liverish e-Newsletter is full of fabulous ideas to help get your body in tip-top shape.

We have continued to have great success with our Liverish e-Newsletter and we attribute it to all your feedback and support! You may have noticed that we have not released a Liverish e-newsletter for a month, and we do apologise. From now on our newsletter will be released on a monthly basis so we can make sure we are giving you information you want. Make sure you keep telling us what you think so we can continue giving you newsletters you can’t wait to read.

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Low in unprocessed plant food such as fruits and vegetables and legumes

Low in anti-oxidants especially vitamin C and selenium

Low in good quality protein

Liver damage from prescribed medications such as some anti-inflammatory drugs, immuno-suppressants, analgesics, and cholesterol lowering drugs. Drugs that may cause or contribute to fatty liver include – Amiodarone, Perhexiline, Paracetamol, calcium channel blockers (eg. diltiazem and nifedipine), methotrexate, chloroquine, hycanthone, synthetic oestrogens, glitazone drugs used in diabetics, and Tamoxifen. This list is not exhaustive and some people can have very severe unusual reactions to drugs that other people do not have; these are called idiosyncratic drug reactions. Always check with your doctor if you are taking long term medications, to find out if they have potential toxic effects on your liver. If they do, make sure that you have a regular liver function test, and if any damage shows up, ask your doctor to change your medications to a more liver-friendly type.

Liver damage from recreational drugs such as alcohol, narcotics, and amphetamines etc, especially as huge doses of these substances may be used in addicted persons.

Liver damage from exposure to environmental toxins such as solvents, dyes, plastics, glues, insecticides, pesticides, dry cleaning fluids, harsh detergents and many industrial chemicals. Many of these toxins find their way into our waterways and food chain, so this further increases the workload of the liver. Those in the following occupations are more at risk of chemical-induced fatty liver damage – dry cleaners, agricultural workers, plumbers, painters, printers, mechanics, hairdressers, nail technicians and factory workers in some industries.

Family history of fatty liver or cryptogenic cirrhosis increases your risk of developing a fatty liver.

Being overweight and/or diabetic increases your risk of fatty liver, and fatty liver is present in 57-74% of obese individuals. Fatty liver is found in 95% of patients undergoing surgery for morbid obesity. This association can be compared to the “chicken and the egg” relationship. In other words, what comes first? In the majority of cases the fatty liver leads to being overweight in the first place and then the excess weight makes the fatty liver progress to a more severe degree. This is why it’s so hard for overweight persons with a fatty liver to lose weight, unless they first improve their liver function.

Rapid weight loss – such as in those with eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia. It is important to avoid very rapid weight loss if you have a fatty liver and that is why fasting or extreme fad diets are dangerous in such cases.

Gastric bypass surgery for the treatment of morbid obesity can cause fatty liver.

Lack of exercise will make you insulin resistant, especially if you have a high carbohydrate diet

Stay tuned- Next newsletter you are going to find out how fatty liver can be detected!

Your liver can become toxic and overloaded by simple things that you probably never even realized were damaging. Detoxification, an extremely vital process carried out by the liver, can be impaired by:

Long term, heavy exposure to environmental toxins, alcohol, heavy metals, and/or certain medications. There is an unprecedented quantity of chemicals being integrated into our environment. These include dyes from printing, hair colours, plastics, alkyl-phenols, PCBs, phthalates, paints and insecticides just to name a few. Thousands of tons of these chemicals seep into the environment around the world, which in turn finds itself in our food chain. The effects of these chemicals are not yet fully understood in most circumstances. An enormous amount of research has been conducted which describes the relationship between toxin exposure and disease and current estimates suggest that up to $800 billion is spent in the US and Canada alone every year on toxicity-related diseases.

Today we have many “idiopathic liver diseases”, where no explanation exists about its development, cause or prevention. It takes many years to prove a hypothesis that toxins could be overloading and damaging the liver, just as it took many years to discover that oestrogen replacement could be dangerous.

Production of excess free radicals as a result of chronic infections such as hepatitis B or C; or autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, graves disease, hashimoto’s thyroiditis etc.

Fatty infiltration of the liver which has become a major problem over the last decade.

Nutritional imbalances and deficiencies of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, essential fatty acids, and sulphur bearing amino acids that are especially required for detoxification. A diet that is deficient in protein and has excess hydrogenated oils and sugar can inhibit detoxification pathways inside the liver cells.

Enzyme polymorphisms – these are genetic variations in the amounts and types of enzymes in the liver cells which can impair the efficiency of detoxification.

Leaky gut syndrome – if the intestines are inflamed this will allow toxins, bacteria and large food molecules to be absorbed from the digestive system into the bloodstream. These toxins will eventually be carried to the liver where they will need to be broken down and excreted from the body.

Medications – many prescription medications influence the detoxification pathways by either slowing them down or speeding them up. Some medications can cause liver inflammation, so it is important to ask your doctor to check your liver function regularly, especially if you take medications which are potentially toxic to your liver. The potential for toxicity caused by medications is increased drastically in patients who take many different types of medications simultaneously.

Ageing – as we age the liver detoxification pathways become less efficient.

Method:
1. Drain all beans in a colander and rinse thoroughly. Heat the oil in a heavy pan. Add the onion and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes, until soft and transparent. Add the garlic, chilli, red pepper, bay leaves, oregano, cumin, coriander and cloves.
2. Stir well and cook for a further 3 minutes, then add the sugar, beans and stock and cook for 8 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and leave over a low heat while you make the salsa.
3. Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone (pit), then peel it and dice the flesh. Toss it with the lime juice, and then add all the remaining salsa ingredients and season with plenty of black pepper. Mix well.
4. Spoon the beans into 4 serving bowls, garnish with sprigs of fresh coriander and serve with the salsa.

Raw juices can save your liver

Ideally, raw juices should be consumed immediately after juicing, because that is when their nutritional content is most active. If you are super busy, you can juice enough for 1 to 2 days at one time. To keep the juice fresh and active, you must store the juice in an air-tight container with a tight lid, or in a thermos in the refrigerator. Add the juice of a lemon to stop the stored juice from oxidizing.
If the juices are too strong and/or upset your stomach, or taste unpleasant, you should dilute them with plenty of water, extra apple or reduce the amounts of the ingredients which upset you. You can vary the ingredients and their amounts to give you more enjoyment and variety.
Most of these recipes will produce 1-2 cups of juice.

Tried every expensive cream under the sun to try to get rid of those dark circles under your eyes and you still have them? Here are some clues as to what exactly it could be and what you can do about it:

Liver dysfunction – This can range from general sluggishness to fatty liver or even hepatitis. Use “Liver Cleansing” raw vegetable juice recipes and a good quality liver tonic which contains St Mary’s Thistle, all the B vitamins and some necessary amino acids.
Poor kidney function – Kidneys do not necessarily have to have any major problem to cause dark circles. If they are not working at their optimum capacity try to do “Kidney problem” raw vegetable juices, take extra strength cranberry capsules (which contain 17, 000mg of cranberry) and keep well hydrated.
Allergies – this is especially common with wheat or dairy allergies or hayfever. It is best to work out what you are allergic to and eliminate it as much as possible. While you are avoiding the allergen, make sure you take effervescent vitamin C to help boost the immune system and a good liver tonic which also has benefits to the digestive system.
Sinus infections – Sinusitis can be improved by taking herbs, vitamins and minerals such as Olive leaf, Andrographis, vitamin c, zinc and selenium.
Long term stress – this can make you become exhausted, regardless of the amount of sleep you have. Try St Johns Wort combined with B vitamins to help restore your nervous system function and improve your stress threshold.
Genetics – Unfortunately, there is not a huge amount you can do about poor genes. You can, however, stay well hydrated and take raw vegetable juices every day to help improve your general wellbeing and reduce the appearance of the dark circles.
Lack of sleep – You need 8 hours of sleep a night. If your lifestyle doesn’t allow you to get the 8 hours you need to have a think about changing your lifestyle. If it is because you are unable to fall asleep, you wake up during the night, or you just simply don’t have a restful night sleep try taking St Johns wort combined with B vitamins to help relieve anxiety and stress which may be causing this problem. For more information about sleeping problems make sure you read Dr Cabot’s brand NEW book “Tired of not Sleeping”.

Insulin resistance responsible for liver scarring in Hepatitis C patients
A recent study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, has described the relationship between insulin resistance, liver scarring and viral endurance in hepatitis C patients.
Researchers were able to conclude the following based on their investigation:
• Asians had a significantly higher level of insulin resistance than Caucasians
• Insulin resistance plays a considerable role in liver injury and scarring in patients with hepatitis C (regardless of the strain or genotype)
• Patients with hepatitis C and insulin resistance had a reduced response of the virus to anti-viral therapy. That is, the survival rate of the hepatitis C virus is increased if insulin resistance is present.

Karen is a 61 year old woman who first came to see me in May 2005. Karen had been diagnosed with a fatty liver by her doctor and also had high triglycerides, cholesterol level in the upper normal limit and a uric acid level which was also on the higher side of normal. Karen also had high iron levels in her blood and her liver enzyme counts have been raised for the past 15 years. Her blood sugar and insulin levels were also both on the higher side of normal and her doctor indicated to her that she was indeed pre-diabetic. These blood tests were obviously a major concern to her.
I placed Karen on the liver cleansing diet and I reduced her carbohydrate intake to the level outlined in the second stage of the Syndrome X diet. I suggested that she started taking “Livatone Plus” (1 capsule twice daily) to assist in reducing the inflammation in her liver and “Glucemic Balance” (1 capsule 3 times daily) to help her control cravings.
Her liver enzyme counts are now the lowest they have been in fifteen years and continue to improve. We are both very pleased with her results so far, as is her doctor. Karen’s cholesterol levels, uric acid and triglycerides are also now well within normal limits. Her iron levels in her blood are now also beginning to decrease.
Karen noted that her energy levels and digestive symptoms have improved significantly and she is feeling the best she has felt in many years.

Airlie Finlay (Adv.Dip.Nat. BHSc.), has been working as Dr Sandra Cabot’s Queensland Consultant since January 2001. She has been working within the health industry for the past 14years. Airlie is passionate about her commitment to promoting nutritional and lifestyle changes that can lead to our increased health and vitalityhttp://www.liverdoctor.com/index.php?page=newsletter&id=5&article=20